


all of your love is sunlight (sunlight, sunlight)

by honey_butter



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, caroline just loves her wife and her dog and that makes me so happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-25 12:34:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22336090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honey_butter/pseuds/honey_butter
Summary: “Mm, baby.” Quanyii looped her arms around Caroline’s middle, pressing a kiss softly to the back of her neck.Caroline felt embarrassed to admit it but the stress in her muscles immediately relaxed, the pain and tension draining from them with the tender brush of her witch’s lips.This is what love feels like.Sir Caroline comes home tired from a day at the castle. She makes soup with her wife and cuddles with her dog and is allowed a moment of peace for once.
Relationships: Sir Caroline & Gwaine (Penumbra Podcast), Sir Caroline/Quanyii (Penumbra Podcast)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 28
Collections: Penumbra Podcast Gift Exchange





	all of your love is sunlight (sunlight, sunlight)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thegreatandpowerfultoaster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegreatandpowerfultoaster/gifts).



> i was so excited to be able to participate in the penumbra gift exchange this year!! thank you for providing me with the opportunity to write some quanyii/caroline fluff, thegreatandpowerfultoaster. hopefully i've done everything right and this won't be posted until february first??
> 
> the location and configuration of caroline's home is not canon, but more how i imagine it with the moroccan style architecture i picture in the second citadel. the soup caroline makes is just a bit of a hodgepodge of different asian and mongolian soups and hot pots i found online. i hope you enjoy the fic!!

Caroline’s muscles ached as she pulled herself up the ladder that led to her third story home in the craftsmen’s district of the citadel. The rough wood rubbed uncomfortably against her raw palms (no matter how much leather you wrapped around a sword’s pommel it could only do so much) and the late evening sun illuminated the cracking sandstone walls.

“Evening, sir knight.” Her neighbor, Amina, nodded to her as Caroline climbed past her window.

“Good evening.” And, when Amina still watched her expectantly, she added, “Your flowers are looking lovely.”

Amina blushed and brushed her hand along a petal of the aforementioned flowers, “Why thank you, I’ve been keeping a special mind to them.”

“They brighten the whole building.” At odds with her words, Caroline’s face remained grim as she continued climbing before stepping out onto the small platform that marked the front of her house, blanketed by a small plot of grass for Gwaine.

Amina waved halfheartedly at her before sighing and ducking back inside. Someday,  _ someday, _ she’d see that knight smile… 

Caroline pushed her door open, ducking under the curtain of gauzy fabric that Quanyii had hung behind it, the movement causing a sharp pain in her sides to shoot up and into her back. She breathed out sharply through her nose and collapsed on the sofa positioned just beside the door for this exact purpose.

Her feet ached, her back hurt, and her stomach felt unfamiliarly hollow. Back in the Frozen Wastes she hadn’t used to feel hunger until it was days after she had eaten, now she felt pangs after a few hours. She was going soft.

Her tired fingers worked apart the ties on her armor, the metal and leather sliding heavily from her body. Even with just her breastplate off she could breathe better, more easily. Her armor protected her, it was her shield, her deflection from the outside world, but at home, with her wife and her dog, she didn’t need that protection, she was allowed to be vulnerable. And Caroline was still learning how to do that, but everytime she woke up to her witch and Gwaine curled up against her side, everytime Quanyii laughed loud and bright enough that it rivaled the tinkling of her crystal chimes, Caroline became just that much more comfortable with letting her guard down.

The rest of her armor was removed slowly. She hated this part of the day, when Quanyii was off Saints knew where with Gwaine and the house was quiet, holding its breath, lonely. Caroline pushed herself from the couch, heading over to their small kitchen and beginning to poke around in their pantry and (magically sustained) ice box. Her stomach ached, her bones begged her to lie back down, but Caroline decided that she might as well pass the time until her family got home making something for them.

Ginger and garlic and onions and bok choy and soy sauce all mixed together and left to marinate in a ceramic bowl Quanyii had painted (tiny caricatures of Caroline, Gwaine, and Quanyii smiling from its surface). Peppers and steak simmering in a pan. Caroline chopped carrots as she waited for the beef broth to come to a boil, the knife rubbing uncomfortably over her freshly opened blisters. 

“ _ Babe _ ,” Quanyii popped into existence beside her as Caroline finished pouring thick noodles into the broth, a small dish on their counter shattering with the magic.

“Witch.”

Quanyii giggled and ran a finger down Caroline’s bicep, “Don’t start that now, you look busy.” She looked closer; at the tired stoop of Caroline’s shoulders and the droop of her eyes. “And tired.”

Caroline hummed in agreement, her fingers clumsily pouring the bag of vegetables and sauce into the broth with the noodles.

“Mm, baby.” Quanyii looped her arms around Caroline’s middle, pressing a kiss softly to the back of her neck.

Caroline felt embarrassed to admit it but the stress in her muscles immediately relaxed, the pain and tension draining from them with the tender brush of her witch’s lips.  _ This is what love feels like _ . Not lust, that burning beast that rears its head in her breast so often. Not fascination, the feeling she gets when she sees Queen Mira sitting resplendent and tired in the Citadel's greeting hall. Love, pure love, was gentle and sweet. It could be all consuming, it could be heated and passionate, but at its most bare form love was the ability to feel at home with another. Caroline loved Quanyii, loved her so much that she was able to relax in her presence, to  _ be _ relaxed by her.

Instead of saying this, Caroline stirred the soup pot slowly, “Where’s Gwaine?”

“He’s outside, he didn’t want to come in yet.”

Caroline nodded and allowed Quanyii to slowly sway them side to side from where she was holding her hips. Quanyii brushed her lips against the skin below Caroline’s ear and Caroline sighed contentedly. If the scared, cold girl she’d been all those years ago could see her now… she probably would have never believed it was real, merely another hunger dream of a future that could never be.  _ This is real _ , Caroline reminds herself, making her mind catalogue each one of the places where Quanyii’s body hugged her’s,  _ this is real _ .

And then the witch was gently nudging Caroline to the side, removing the spoon from her hand, taking her place before the fire, letting Caroline lean stooped against the counter. And Caroline was  _ so _ bone achingly tired and  _ so _ happy that her heart was finally free to rise up and into her throat.

“Quanyii.”

Quanyii cocked her head towards Caroline, swishing her hips just slightly in a flirtatious manner, “Mmm?”

“I love you.” The words are a whisper because she cannot bring herself to say them any louder, even here and to her.

“Oh, babe, you know I love you too.”

Caroline felt the edges of her lips turn up into a smile, her eyelids drifting shut. It was so warm before the fire and even though she was standing her body felt light. Quanyii hummed a little song, one she recognized from last year’s festival of the three, and the smell of the soup slipped through the air intoxicatingly. 

“Oh no, don’t you go falling asleep on me now, sugar. You put in all this hard work and you aren’t even going to be able to enjoy the soup you  _ so kindly _ made for me?” Caroline peeled her eyes back just a bit to stare down the witch who was smiling simperingly at her.

Quanyii reached out one of her (perfectly manicured, soft as Gwaine’s ears) hands and placed it gently on Caroline’s arm. “Go sit on the couch, babe. I’ll bring dinner to you when it’s ready.”

Caroline rested her hand affectionately over Quanyii’s before pulling away and collapsing on the couch. She was about to drift off again when the jangle of the little bells Quanyii had attached to Gwaine’s neck woke her again, her dog nuzzling her hand affectionately.

“Oh, hello, Gwaine, dear. Did you miss Mommy?” Gwaine responded by licking her hand and wagging his tail aggressively, the dog equivalent of “ _ yes, yes, yes, you were gone for a  _ whole  _ day! _ ”

Gwaine jumped up onto the couch beside Caroline and she absentmindedly petted him, brain still foggy from tiredness. Nevertheless, she caught herself watching Quanyii who was now spinning in small circles before the fire as she periodically added pieces of steak and pepper to the fragrant broth. Quanyii was gorgeous, her long white hair billowing back from where it was held out of her eyes by a scarf, her layered skirts swaying in a loose circle around her lithe form. Quanyii caught her eye and smiled, adding more hips to her dancing now that she knew Caroline was watching and Caroline was  _ so in love _ .

Gwaine nudged his nose into Caroline’s face and she turned back to him, “Yes, yes, I know mommy got distracted. Your mom is just so gorgeous over there, making us dinner.”

“I am, aren’t I?” Quanyii giggled a little, the sound echoing off of the numerous glass dishes that glinted in the sunlight on their windowsill. 

Quanyii began pouring the soup into bowls and Caroline leaned her head against the back of the couch, the feeling of ease that had found her as soon as Quanyii came home only increasing as the sunlight ticked by.

“Scooch.” Caroline slid closer into Gwaine’s space on the couch, letting Quanyii perch half on the remaining cushion and half on Caroline’s lap. “Here you go, my darling, one order of teamwork soup.” 

She thankfully took the proffered bowl from Quanyii’s hand, the first spoonful a warm and welcoming song in her mouth, the noodles dissolving on her tongue, the steak tangy and tender.

Quanyii burrowed herself farther into Caroline’s side as they eat and as Caroline feeds some pieces of plain steak to Gwaine. The bowls were eventually placed on the floor, Quanyii waving her hand to use a small bit of magic to put the remainder of the soup away. She yawned, stretched like a cat, and draped herself over Caroline’s lap with Gwaine.

“My two loves,” Caroline said as she scratched Gwaine’s back and smoothed a hand through Quanyii’s hair, her fingers playing with all of the long kinky strands.

Quanyii began humming again, turning her head into Caroline’s lap. “You smell like sweat.”

“Eau de knighthood,” Caroline murmured and Quanyii snorted.

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

The evening sun streamed in through the curtains, illuminating the room in golden, sparkling light. Caroline was at ease, she was happy and full and warm and loved in a house that radiated all of those things. Gwaine, her dog and her baby and the only creature that had ever been completely dependent on her, sleeping soundly in her lap. Quanyii, her wife and the love of her life and her spark of joy on a cold night, humming softly on her thighs, smiling in the way she only ever did when she was truly happy. In that bubble of warmth Caroline allowed herself to drift off, her eyes finally shutting on that day’s sun.

**Author's Note:**

> once again, @thegreatandpowerfultoaster thank you for the wonderful prompt i had a blast writing this!! i hope you enjoyed it :DD
> 
> as always, don't be shy to leave a comment or come visit me at [labelleofbelfastcity](https://labelleofbelfastcity.tumblr.com/) on good old tumblr.com. hope you're having a great afternoon/morning/night!!


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